Page 61 of Sticks and Stones and Broken Bones

The door to the office slammed open and a flash of bright red hair swanned in like she didn’t have a care in the world.

“Yoh, Kingy, I need to talk to you about—” she stopped when she saw us, her face lighting with mischief. “Ooh, are you being told off? This totally looks like you’re being told off.”

Hades took a deep breath before turning to face her. How could I have forgotten about Hades’ little reaper? I could never work out whether something was going on there or not. There was a definite thread of tension between the pair and I was just waiting to see it snap and pull them together. Last time I saw them together, she looked like she was sat in his lap and warming his cock.

“What can I help you with, Roux?” Hades asked.

“Just needed your advice on something, but it can wait.” Roux turned towards us. “Is the gorgeous lady out there with the purple hair yours?”

“Yes,” we all said at the same times. Spooky.

Her eyes widened and a smile curled her mouth. “Cool. I’m gonna go and make a new friend.” She turned to Hades. “Don’t rip them to shreds, I actually quite like these guys.”

“You do know I’m the king here, right?” Hades drawled.

Roux nodded and waved over her shoulder as she walked towards the exit. “Of course I know that. We all know that. You’re reminding us all the time.”

Hades growled and Nox snorted. He tried to cover it with a cough but he didn’t succeed in masking it.

“Call me when you’re ready, Your Majesty,” she said with a ridiculously low bow before leaving the room.

“I like her,” Nox said cheerily.

Hades harrumphed and turned back to the window.

I had the feeling that she enjoyed pushing his buttons and the only reason Roux still had her head was because secretly, somewhere deep down, he perversely enjoyed it himself. He’d been on his own since Persephone had died, that perhaps Roux was going to do him some good and help heal the grief he cocooned himself in. She’d be good for him. He just needed to give himself the patience to accept it.

“So, about the time slowing thing,” Nox said, oblivious to the tension in the room. “What did you mean?”

Hades let out an exasperated sigh. I knew how he felt. Nox just never seemed to be able to read the room and it was more effort than it needed to be to keep him in line sometimes.

“That there was only one person with the ability to manipulate time. But it is impossible for your necromancer to have anything to do with him because he’s banished to the Isles of the Blessed.”

“What are they?” Hawk asked.

“A paradise reserved for only the most deserving,” Hades explained. “Or for those given divine permission.”

“Once you enter you cannot leave,” Korbin added.

I frowned, not quite putting the puzzle pieces together. “But Raevyn is twenty-one. Does that mean—”

“Yes,” Hades interrupted, his jaw clenching. “He escaped the Isles and somehow returned without my knowledge.”

“But who?” I didn’t know of anyone who was on the Isles of the Blessed. It was a place reserved for, well, the Blessed. Most people either went on to Elysium, or Tartarus if they were really bad. Or they were shipped to the Ascension Planes for judgement.

Hades fixed us all with a dark look. “My father.”

Fuck me. And I thought things couldn’t get any worse.

Casimir scoffed. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

My sentiments exactly.

Raevyn

The woman with the bright red hair swanned back out of the throne room with a wide smile and mischief dancing in her eyes. There was something about her that I instantly liked. Probably her blasé attitude towards Hades.

“Hey,” she said with a grin. “The Revenants say you’re with them?”

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